Re: [Cal_Boats] cal28

Lord Nougat2007-10-02 19:42 UTC

From: Chris Campbell <cl… [at] charterinternet.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, October 2, 2007 5:59:53 AM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] cal28 As for the "wond hold oil" bit, I was wondering what that meant too - I intend on going in tomorrow morning first thing and talking to the dockmaster - he'll be happy to tell me more if it means he gets another slip rented out, I expect. I don't imagine pulling the engine and replacing some gaskets is too far beyond my skillset. It sure is awesome, but indeed, she's no Cal 20. I'd definately fix her up and /try/ soloing a bit, just to see how much more difficult a job it is than on the 20. Who knows, maybe I'd get to learn firsthand that the little Cal20 is just my speed; but I'd really like to sail to ... well, everywhere really, and those 8 more feet make it seem slightly less demented [though I know the Cal 20 could totally handle it, I just don't think I could!] There's an inspirational pair of guys right on our row with a Cal 28 who daysail periodically, and I know that they do not have a working engine - in fact, they inspired me to try sailing engineless, which is great fun! They always launch pushing off with a huge stick. It's literally some big old gnarly tree branch. They then set both sails quickly and gain steerage speed before crashing into anybody, and they do it all in silence! Most inspirational to see, and it's really easy to emulate in the Cal20 without even using a stick. I hadn't realised just how annoying having to deal with that outboard was until I could spend a day never touching it at all. Well, there are several issues here. First, what in the world does "won't hold oil" mean--leaky oil pan gasket? Sucking oil through the rings? Leaking through bearing seals? If it's not seized, can't you just pull and rebuild a small diesel fairly easily? Second, this is worse than two-foot-itis, this is eight-foot-itis, so you'd better do some calculations on (a) increased slip fees; (b) maybe increased annual licensing fees, depending on how CA charges; (c) increased work---you've got 16 more feet of topsides to clean & wax, for example; (d) more expensive sails and rigging; and (e) possibly less sailing, depending on how easy it is top single-hand the boat. It may depend on how you use the boat. For cruising, the 28 obviously has advantages over the 20 (you could take along more than one pair of underwear and still have room below). But if you mostly just hop aboard and spend the day sailing, then the nimble little 20 may be a better bet. There's always the option of acquiring the 28, fixing it up, and then deciding which of the two boats to sell. Either way, you'd be keeping the Cal fleet going. Chris Campbell  ____________________________________________________________________________________ Check out the hottest 2008 models today at Yahoo! Autos. http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html